STANDING TALL by Geospatial World

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SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 » VOLUME 11 » ISSUE 03 | ISSN 2277–3134

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In these uncertain times, the AEC industry has successfully overcome multifaceted challenges through resilient business models, definite execution plans and digitalization. But there is still a long way to go.

GO FURTHER.

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CONTENTS SEPT-OCT 2020 VOLUME: 11, ISSUE: 03

10 / Space Landscape has Dramatically Shifted in Past 10 Years Teresa Carlson

Vice President Worldwide Public Sector, AWS

COVER STORY

14 /

CORNER OFFICE

STANDING TALL

REGULAR FEATURES

04 / Editorial 05 / Out of Turn 06 / Product Watch Resilient business models, definite execution plans and strategic product lineups have enabled geospatial and BIM technology companies in the AEC sector to not only weather the Covid storm, but also do well in terms of numbers in these uncertain times.

INTERVIEW: BUILDING & INFRA

INFOSPHERE

08 / How Data will Drive UK The UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Data Strategy (NDS) is an ambitious, pro-growth plan that will help the country in building a data economy, while ensuring public trust in data use.

22 / The When, Where and How of Construction Automation Ulrich Hermanski

Chief Marketing Officer, Topcon Positioning Systems

25 / Infrastructure Spending, Technology Adoption will Revive AEC Industry Page Tucker

CEO and Founder, ProStar

SPECIAL FEATURE

27 / Taking Journalism to New Orbits EXPERT OPINION

31 / National Data and National Sovereignty John Kedar

Global Geospatial Strategy Advisor

Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Kumar Managing Editor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Editor-At-Large Technology & Innovation Anusuya Datta Consulting Editor Architecture, Engineering & Construction Gavin Schrock Contributing Editor Geospatial Infrastructure John Kedar Contributing Editor Global Defense and Security Keith J. Masback Consulting Editor Nishi Malhotra Associate Editor Policy & Public Affairs Avneep Dhingra Associate Editor Business & Market Analysis Shimonti Paul Sr. Assistant Editor Defense & Intelligence Meenal Dhande Chief Designer Subhash Kumar Visualizer Pradeep Chauhan

INTERVIEW: DEFENSE & SECURITY

33 / Geospatial Information in Every System Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Bier

Geo Information Officer of the Armed Forces, Ministry of Defence, The Netherlands

POLICY TRACK

Sales & Marketing Manager Vaishali Dixit Disclaimer Geospatial World does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. Geospatial World is not responsible for any loss to anyone due to the information provided. Owner, Publisher & Printer: Sanjay Kumar Printed at Virtika Offset Printers, G-14 Sector 3, Noida - 201 301, G.B. Nagar (UP) India Publication Address A - 145, Sector - 63, Noida - 201 301, India Geospatial World: The edition contains 40 pages including cover. Geospatial Media and Communications Pvt. Ltd. A - 145, Sector - 63, Noida, India, Tel + 91-120-4612500, Fax +91-120-4612555/666

35 / GIS to Optimize Land Use Sept-Oct 2020 | www.gwprime.geospatialworld.net | 3

EDITORIAL

Silver Lining for AEC Industry

n the September 2020 issue of the National Geographic, an article on robotics starts with a description of an autonomous excavator, which is set up to dig a portion of an area and dump the material in preselected sites for human-operated bulldozers to smooth out the area. Welcome to the world of AEC.

Environment-friendly buildings is also an important issue. The ‘greening’ of buildings that ensure low carbon footprint, safe and clean recycling, and/or disposal of waste are the needs of the hour. Add to this easy accessibility through public transport to reduce energy wastage of individual vehicles and optimize the impact on existing buildings, transportation, infrastructure, utilities, and the environment. Finally, the inclusion of facilities for the quick and efficient evacuation at times of disaster should also be addressed.

Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) are three indeProf. Arup Dasgupta arup@geospatialmedia.net pendent industries tied together with a common goal of the aesthetic and environment-friendly design of buildings, their construction, and further operations There are several technologies that play an and maintenance. Traditionally these have been essential role in providing support to these considered to be independent activities with activities — CAD, BIM, GIS, Location, and their processes and procedures. Interfacing AI. BIM provides the glue that ties disparate between these activities happened, but there technologies together through common standwas a lack of common standards between them. ards, procedures, and processes. GEO-BIM The interactions were thus person-oriented, adds the element of geospatial, thus including rather than being standards-based processes the information on the spatial location of the and procedures. building and enables the architects and engineers to analyze the impact of the construcThe National Institute of Standards and Techtion on the existing environment. nology (NIST) has published its report in 2004, declaring that the construction industry loses It is heartening to note that the AEC approximately $15.8 billion a year, or around industry has quickly realized that GEO-BIM is 3-4% of the total industry revenue, due to inadethe way out of the downturn. In every cloud, quate interoperability and data management. there is a silver lining, and the enhanced adoption of GEO-BIM is a good sign that the COVID-19 has made the importance of the AEC industry is on the road to a digital and AEC and BIM (Building Information Manageinteroperable future. The concept of construct ment) very acute. The severe restrictions and forget is being replaced by the paradigm imposed almost brought the industry to a standof lifecycle management for AEC. still. In a situation where an activity cannot have hundreds of workers milling around, A word of caution. While digitalization the importance of programmable automated and automation are the way forward, the machines and task-specific robots is mandatory. industry also needs to re-skill and re-emHowever, there is always the worry of job losses ploy humans replaced. Just as draughtsmen due to automation. The idea is to make robots were re-skilled to use CAD, there is a need to do repetitive and dirty work while humans can create opportunities for others whose jobs concentrate on work that requires intelligence will be on the line. and, perhaps, art. 4 | www.gwprime.geospatialworld.net | Sept-Oct 2020

OUT OF TURN

Philosophy, Knowledge and Governance

Aristotle advocated even more strongly that the government should be in the hands of the best and the most competent. In fact, he considered “good monarchy” better than democracy. Chanakya, an Indian philosopher, practiced the philosophy of knowledge and welfare. He led a revolution and installed a strong, progressive and welfare state. Knowledge, integrity, and service to the nation were defined Sanjay Kumar sanjay@geospatialmedia.net as the fundamental prerequisites for rulers. And the debate around a knowledge-driven democracy versus a popular republic or aristocracy continued. In fact, even Rousseau, through his philosophy of “The Social Contract”, portrayed the The quest for democracy has been a phenomresponsibility of the sovereign to ensure its enon since 500BC, and its tenets have evolved citizen to be “forced to be free” — so that an over centuries, weathering social, religious, individual enjoys freedom till his/her actions political and institutional challenges. The do not harm others, as society is based on struggle continued through generations and did interdependent individuals. not yield much success until the 17th Century, when the world witnessed several civil wars Today, once again we are standing at the and revolutions across USA, UK, France and crossroads. On the one hand we have pracRussia, driven by the philosophies of John Locke, ticing autocracies flourishing in different Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and forms, and on the other hand we have Karl Marx. popular democracies led by individuals having paucity of knowledge, integrity and Knowledge has been the sole criterion for the the competence to serve the humanity and ruling elite or “philosopher kings”, as described by nature. At a time when the world needed a Plato. Socrates, the father of western philosophy, collective approach to address existential believed in the power of knowledge and advocated problems posed by a host of social, economic that the ruler shall have the greatest knowledge and environmental challenges, there were no and wisdom to understand human desires and statesmen to look up to. On top of that, we offer practical solutions for the well-being of have been witnessing an upsurge of arrosociety. Having watched the government sentence gant Right-Wing leadership both amongst Socrates to death, Plato proposed an “ideal state”, democratic and dictatorial regimes, which wherein philosophers should acquire political is clearly in contrast to the philosophy of power and only people having the knowledge of knowledge-led dispensations. It’s ironphilosophy should be allowed to rule. He further ical that in an age where knowledge rules went on to divide the society in three classes, economy, arrogance is ruling polity. We aren’t wherein the economy shall be the responsibility short of knowledge, but we are definitely of merchants, security of warriors, and political missing a philosopher! governance of “philosopher kings”.

overnance has been at the core of philosophies since times immemorial. And philosophies served as guiding principles for polity, economy and society — the three founding pillars of modern civilization. For years, philosophers worldwide opposed religious institutions and autocratic kingdoms, and propagated the ideas of a democratic society with free thinking. The freedom to think, reason, express and even dissent was probably the early trigger for philosophers; but soon, the establishment of a welfare state through public participation in governance took the center stage.

Sept-Oct 2020 | www.gwprime.geospatialworld.net | 5

PRODUCT WATCH

EMCORE’s Laser Module to Support Array of Industrial Applications EMCORE Corporation has introduced a laser module for LiDAR and optical sensing. The Model 1790 1550 nm High-Power Laser Module was developed for use as a CW (Continuous Wavelength) coherent optical source for next generation FMCW (Frequency Modulation Continuous Wavelength) LiDAR systems.

Versatile Features

• Supports a broad array of industrial applications including materials characterization, strain measurement, terahertz-spectroscopy, interferometry, position and interference measurement, and other applications • Its vertical integration allows for different wavelengths to be available for custom applications and form factors, including packaged component or micro-optical subassembly • Has a wide operating temperature range from -10 °C to +65 °C and is Telcordia Technologies® GR-468 and RoHS compliant

The 1790 achieves extremely narrow line-widths combined with a high efficiency coupling scheme to enable high optical output power of 18 dBm, creating a compact, robust solution for FMCW sensing. Its monolithic design, combined with optimized coupling optics, makes it highly immune to the mode or optical frequency hopping typically found with single isolator, external cavity designs. EMCORE’s LiDAR laser technology maintains optical frequency stability over temperature, suppressing false readings caused by the mode or frequency hopping which is typical in conventional designs.

Teledyne’s New 3D Sensors Deliver Up to 45K Profiles Per Second

Hesai’s High-performance LiDAR for Autonomous Driving Applications

Teledyne Imaging has recently launched Z-Trak™2, its newest family of 3D profile sensors. Built on 3D image sensor technology, Z-Trak2 ushers in a new era of 5GigE 3D profile sensors for high-speed, in-line 3D applications. The models deliver scan speed of up to 45,000 profiles per second and feature built-in HDR and reflection compensation algorithms to handle surfaces with varying degrees of reflectivity in a single scan. This delivers in-line height measurements for inspection, detection, identification, and guidance in electronics, semiconductor, automotive and factory automation markets segments. Offering 2,000 points per profile, all Z-Trak2 models are factory calibrated and are offered with either blue or red eye safe lasers to suit various surface properties and operating environments.

Hesai Technology has released its next-generation mechanical LiDAR, Pandar128. It offers an ideal solution for autonomous driving applications. Pandar128 retains a little form factor: it’s just 7 mm tall and weighs 1.63 kg only. Its compact design allows for seamless integration into a vehicle’s exterior for a more aesthetic configuration. The new system architecture also reduces power consumption, requiring a maximum of 27 W (10 Hz), despite the enormous data volume. Most notably, Pandar128 is perfectly suitable for automotive volume production.

Major Highlights

• Up to 2K points/profile; scan rate up to 45K profiles/sec • Built-in single frame HDR • 360° inspection and occlusion removal

6 | www.gwprime.geospatialworld.net | Sept-Oct 2020

Fully Loaded

• Resolution: up to 0.1° (H) * 0.125° (V) at 10 Hz refresh rate • Up to 6,912,000 points/sec • Detection capability: 200 m (10% reflectivity target)

TomTom Launches RoadCheck for Safer Autonomous Driving

TomTom has launched RoadCheck for automated vehicles that allows carmakers to decide where it is safe for drivers to activate their vehicles’ automated driving functions. RoadCheck is pre-integrated with the TomTom HD Map and overthe-air map delivery system, TomTom AutoStream. It will help them define the operational design domain (ODD) of their vehicles’ automated driving functions. This will allow carmakers to manage where these functions can be used safely. Engineers can enter automated driving (AD) rules and restrictions into the intuitive online editor. The Cloud-based RoadCheck service delivers the data directly to the vehicle, for example, through the pre-integrated AutoStream service. TomTom RoadCheck is the latest edition to TomTom’s vehicle automation portfolio, which also includes the TomTom HD Map, the TomTom ADAS Map, a hazard service, TomTom AutoStream and TomTom Vehicle Horizon.

Safe and Sound

• • • •

Unique map insights, safer vehicles One solution fits all Tailor to any vehicle Pre-integrated solution

SkyGrid’s All-in-one Drone App to Automate Every Phase of Flight SkyGrid has launched a new application called SkyGrid Flight Control™ for drone operators and enterprises to automate every phase of flight in one unified solution. The app simplifies mission planning and execution, allowing drone operators to autonomously surveil a bounded area and detect objects in real-time. The solution enables more efficient search and rescue missions, disaster response, perimeter surveillance,

site inspections and more, and is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) computer vision. SkyGrid Flight Control enables drone operators to automate airspace authorization, mission planning, flight execution, and object detection in one end-to-end solution and is powered by SkyGrid’s AerialOS™. The app is now available for free on the iPad App Store.

For a Smooth Flight

• • • •

Airspace intelligence Ground intelligence Advanced weather data Real-time airspace authorization • Automated mission planning • Autonomous flight execution • AI object recognition

Topcon’s Robotic Total Stations for Versatile Surveys and Construction

Topcon Positioning Group has announced new flagship GT Series robotic total stations for survey, construction, and machine control applications. The GT-1200 and GT-600 total stations are available in multiple accuracy levels. The new total stations are part of a full

workflow solution, including a new field computer, a full-version update to Topcon field and office software, as well as GNSS receivers. The system is designed to work in sync for improved performance and better data handling with built-in, fieldto-office connectivity. From a software perspective, MAGNET improves field-based quality reporting and data handling for larger files, graphical processing, and 3D models. MAGNET Field features more visual- and map-based workflows in addition to menu-driven functionality popular with power users.

Key Features

• 10 Hz positioning update rate • New ultrasonic motor control algorithm to maintain superior prism-lock Sept-Oct 2020 | www.gwprime.geospatialworld.net | 7

Project Highlights • Survey of India (SoI) will map rural inhabited lands using drones and latest survey methods. • The pilot phase will cover 1 lakh villages in Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in six months. • The pilot phase (FY 2020-21) has a projected outlay of INR 79.65 crore ($11.97 million).

• The outcome from the project will include updation of the ‘record-of-rights’ in revenue/property registers and issuance of property cards to the owners. • Surveys will be carried out across the country in a phase wise manner over a period of four years (2020-2024). • 6.62 lakh villages will be covered under the project.

Work Components

Data acquisition using Professional Survey Grade Drone

Processing of data captured

Feature Extraction

Attribute linkage to the extracted features

Generation of Land Parcel Maps

Presently SoI is engaged in working with Ministry of Panchayati Raj and state Governments

Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) Government of India

Government of Uttar Pradesh

Government of Haryana

Government of Karnataka

Government of Maharastra

Government of Madhya Pradesh

Government of Uttarakhand

Government of Punjab

Government of Rajasthan

SURVEYOR GENERAL’S OFFICE Hathibarkala Estate, Dehradun, Pin - 248 001 (T) +91-135-2747051-58 Ext 4360 | (F) +91-135-2744064, 2743331 Email- sgo.soi@gov.in | Website- http://www.surveyofindia.gov.in

We are proud to be associated with

SVAMITVA Scheme

of Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) Govt of India Large scale mapping on 1:500 scale of the hitherto unmapped rural village Aabadi areas using Professional Survey Grade UAV/Drone for villages across the country is being undertaken by Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), Govt of India under Central Sector scheme “SVAMITVA”. SVAMITVA Scheme was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 24th April 2020. Survey of India is the technology implementing agency in the project. We are carrying out drone survey to generate the largescale maps & property records of village habited areas covering approx 1 lakh villages in phase one and remaining in phase two. This mapping work includes establishment of Continuous Operating Reference System (CORS) network system, Geoid Model Development, Generation of Maps (analogues and digital) and creation of GIS Database.

https://indiamaps.gov.in https://g2g.indiamaps.gov.in/soig2g https://soinakshe.uk.gov.in http://www.surveyofindia.gov.in/pages/display/257-sahyog--mobile-app-by-soi

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